Whole of Liverpool to be offered coronavirus tests in new trial
Everyone in Liverpool will be offered free coronavirus tests on a regular basis as part of the UK’s first mass testing scheme.
All those living and working in the city will be offered tests regardless of whether they have symptoms or not.
It comes after the announcement of a new national lockdown in England over the weekend.
Liverpool was the first city to be put under tier three restrictions – the highest level – a few weeks ago.
It is currently reporting 336.4 cases per 100,000 people, one of the highest rates in the UK.
The pilot scheme will begin on Friday and will see 2,000 members of the armed forces work with NHS staff to administer the tests.
If successful, it is hoped that similar programmes can be rolled out across other cities and urban areas in the UK.
Medical officials will use a combination of swab tests and new “lateral flow” tests, which can provide results in an hour.
Announcing the pilot, PM Boris Johnson said: “These tests will help identify the many thousands of people in the city who don’t have symptoms but can still infect others without knowing.
“Dependent on their success in Liverpool, we will aim to distribute millions of these new rapid tests between now and Christmas and empower local communities to use them to drive down transmission in their areas.
“It is early days, but this kind of mass testing has the potential to be a powerful new weapon in our fight against Covid-19.”